Early this week, local restaurant owners were scrambling to be ready for a possible re-opening, even though it wasn’t clear when Whatcom County would move onto phase 2 of governor Jay Inslee’s four-phase re-opening plan, which allows restaurants to open with less than 50 percent of capacity.
Local restaurant owners thought that bigger restaurants and those with outdoor seating would be able to reopen profitably, with less challenge than smaller restaurants. Some small restaurants in Blaine and Birch Bay were reconfiguring, aiming to make reduced capacity profitable, or just waiting to see if re-opening would pencil out.
Whatcom County applied to move to phase 2 on June 2 and expected to be approved within two days, according to the county. Shifting guidelines and dates added a lot of confusion to the restaurant industry in the weeks before re-opening. Some restaurant owners previously thought they might be able to open on June 1, the day the governor’s stay-home order expired. On June 1, they were coming to terms with the idea that opening would come with little or no lead-time.
In addition to seating less than 50 percent of building occupancy, phase 2 requires that restaurants comply with a long list of other state requirements. Hand sanitizer must be available at the entry, bar seating is not allowed, all parties must be five guests or less, tables must be placed far enough apart that guests at adjacent tables are a minimum of six feet apart, menus must be single-use, and the number of staff serving any one table must be minimized.
Those are just the customer-facing requirements: there’s another list for employees that includes supplying personal protective equipment and screening employees at the start of each shift.
Some guidelines have changed over time; weeks ago, Inslee said restaurants would be required to retain contact information for every guest, a measure that would help health workers that do contact tracing find and call each person who may be infected in a potential outbreak. The governor removed that guidance, but not before Miguel Ramos, owner of Paso del Norte in Blaine, bought an iPad to collect that data.
“It is very confusing,” Ramos said. “You hear so many things. They say one thing and then something else comes up.”
Since March 17, when Inslee closed all restaurants across the state for dine-in service, Ramos said take-out has become popular at Paso del Norte. He expects that to continue, and he’s not sure whether opening his restaurant at 50 percent occupancy will be profitable.
Like other local restaurant owners, Ramos plans to seat people in every section of his restaurant to keep tables far apart, and he’ll likely have a separate server for each section to reduce the number of employees that diners will come into contact with.
That means he’ll have to hire almost everyone back. Though he expects less revenue at 50 percent capacity, he won’t save much on expenses. In some cases, he’ll need more employees, he said. “Instead of having one waiter at lunch time, I’m going to have three waiters,” Ramos said.
And will people actually come inside to eat? That’s a question on every restaurant owner’s mind.
“I’ll have to be open for a week to get some numbers,” Ramos said. “We are ready. I’ve got my inventory back, I’ve talked to all my suppliers, I’m ready.”
Though Christina Niemann didn’t know when she could open her restaurants, she was busy preparing on June 1. “We’re working feverishly on opening up and cleaning everything,” she said.
Niemann owns CJ’s Beach House in Birch Bay and Black Forest Steakhouse in Blaine. Both restaurants are spacious and she thought opening with reduced capacity might work financially.
“I have enough tables at CJ’s and most people sit on the terrace, so I don’t suffer as much as the small restaurants do,” she said.
Niemann started offering takeout about four weeks ago, later than most businesses, she said, but business has been “incredible.” That makes her think people actually will show up to eat at restaurants once the state allows it.
“I have faith. People want to get out,” Niemann said. “I’m excited to see my customers again. It’s boring without them.”
Randall Sheriff, owner of the Beach at Birch Bay, has seen first-hand that people are ready to get out, he said. He opened the stage at his outdoor bar to bands who need a space to practice. When bands play, people come by to stand outside the restaurant and listen, he said.
The Beach at Birch Bay has a large outdoor seating area, and even at 50 percent occupancy there’s space for 140, Sheriff said. He plans to serve customers from two separate bars, he added plexiglass sneeze guards and he planned to open by reservation only.
“We should be OK,” he said. “It’s not going to be like usual, but as far as profitability, yeah, we should be able to make a profit.”
Sheriff added that he feels for smaller places with less room.
One such restaurant is The Vault Wine Bar and Bistro in Blaine. Last month, co-owner Joni Finston said she might not open in phase 2, because she didn’t see how 50 percent capacity could be profitable at her intimate wine bar. Now, she has a plan.
The Vault’s take-and-heat meals have been popular, so Finston is planning on re-opening the restaurant to dine-in service while continuing to ramp up its takeout business.
“We have already eliminated 50 percent of seating just to see what that looks like,” she said. “It doesn’t leave us with very much but we’ve done it.” Finston also has a deck, and she’s hoping to add more outdoor seating to the restaurant’s sidewalk.
The Vault will close the week of June 9-13 to re-tool the kitchen and develop a new menu, including an à la carte menu for curbside service. Reconfiguring the kitchen will allow The Vault to keep doing takeout while still serving food at the restaurant, “two very different animals,” she said.
Still, Finston won’t know if the changes to her business will work out until it starts.
“There’s not much margin in a restaurant,” she said. “We don’t do this for the money, we do this because we love it.”
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